Trianon Palace Versailles, a Waldorf Astoria Hotel is located on the edge of the Royal Domain of Versailles. Its central location is less than a mile from Louis XIV's Chateau de Versailles. The hotel is decorated in a rather opulent yet contemporary style. The closeness of the hotel to the grounds of the Chateau of Versailles is clearly its biggest asset but there is still a long walk to the front gates of the Chateau. Nevertheless, the building is well maintained and very imposing feel; as I drove through the entrance gates, up the drive and parked on the front door the valet swooped down and opened my car door, took my car key from me and everything was taken care of, all I had to do was make my way to reception. I felt as if I didn’t belong here and I was imposing on the world of aristocracy, I had arrived in a beaten up old Ford Focus and was dressed in jeans, still I did remember that I was paying rather a lot to stay here so I didn’t feel too bad.
The entrance is small but sufficiently sized to carry its opulence; the receptionist, concierge were all very friendly and professional without being too arrogant, they managed to balance haughtiness and friendliness very well. However, when something goes wrong as it did in my case requiring the hotel to compensate a guest in some way, then nobody has the ability or authority to rectify the matter unless it is just to apologise profusely. I had telephoned ahead and booked a table at the Gordon Ramsey restaurant but when I arrived I discovered that the restaurant was closed for August but I was never told this when I booked the table! I had especially come here to celebrate my anniversary otherwise I would have stayed somewhere much cheaper. Instead I had to dine in their basic restaurant ‘Veranda’ and would have expected at least a free bottle wine as an apology but instead I got a small saucer with a few sweets and I don’t mean expensive sweets just a couple of nougat sweets that a restaurant would give as a free accompaniment with coffee.! It left me with a bad taste and feeling of being abuse.
The foyer leads into a long corridor from which the restaurants, swimming pool and spa are accessed. The corridor also has seating which is invariably full of guests taping away and accessing the free wifi which is only available in the foyer and corridor. If you want wifi in your room you have to pay 25 euro a day! Interesting as the budget hotel chain Ibis provides free wifi to all guests but then this is a Waldorf Astoria hotel after all so I guess they haven’t caught up with the modern world yet
The room I had was lovely; the bed was a high divan with plush cotton sheets and a duvet that seemed to be made of cloud. It was so relaxing sleeping in the bed I didn’t want to get up. The furniture was pretty low key black and white melamine lamination in a contemporary style but the height of the ceilings gave it a more elegant feel than it deserves. There is a small hall leading from the door with the bathroom from the side and the bedroom at the end. The rooms were large enough to provide a dressing table, two arm chairs and still leave plenty of room for a large case on the floor with plenty of walk space around it all. The windows are tall and wonderful looking in the style of the early part of the last century. Opening both sides of the tall windows draws the view of the park into the room.